Merchant of Venice Nce PA

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This Norton Critical Edition has been carefully edited to make The Merchant of Venice , its surrounding history, and the history of its critical reception and rewritings accessible to readers. The text of this edition is based on the 1600 First Quarto, with light editing and substantial explanatory annotations by Leah S. Marcus. "Sources and Contexts" largely focuses on the character of Shylock and the issue of anti-Semitism in the play. Materials included are diverse, and at times contradictory, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. Examples include seventeenth-century anti-Semitic literature, an essay from the same period defending Jews and arguing for their repatriation in England, an examination of the Christian theology of the play, and readings of The Merchant of Venice as exclusionary for Jews, women, and people of color. "Criticism" collects twenty-one diverse interpretations. In addition to Shylock and the question of anti-Semitism, these essays address The Merchant of Venice in the context of postcolonial, feminist, and queer theory and explore relevant issues of economic status and organization. "Rewritings and Appropriations" includes excerpts from dramatic, musical, and other literary adaptations of The Merchant of Venice , as well as a selection of poems, most of them from the twentieth century, on the character of Shylock. A Selected Bibliography is also included.

List of Illustrations

vii

Preface

ix

The Text of The Merchant of Venice

1

(339)

The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice

3

(73)

A Note on the Text

76

(7)

Sources and Contexts

[The Tale of the Three Caskets from the Gesta Romanorum]

83

(1)

Richard Robinson

[The Merchant of Venice]

84

(16)

Ser Giovanni Fiorentino

[Ballad of a Cruel Jew]

100

(4)

Anonymous

[The True Meaning of Friendship]

104

(4)

Sir Thomas Elyot

[Duties of Husband and Wife]

108

(2)

Edwin Sandys

The Merchant: A Sermon Preached at Paul's Cross

110

(4)

Daniel Price

[Description of Venice]

114

(7)

Thomas Coryat

[The Case of Doctor Lopez]

121

(2)

William Camden

[Causes of the Miseries of the Jews]

123

(2)

Thomas Calvert

[Judaizing Christians in the 1590s]

125

(2)

Peter Heylyn

[Parliamentary Debate on Usury, April 19, 1571]

127

(2)

Sir Simonds D'Ewes

An Apology for the Honorable Nation of the Jews

129

(6)

Edward Nicholas

Criticism

[Remarks on The Merchant of Venice]

135

(1)

Nicholas Rowe

The Merchant of Venice

135

(6)

William Hazlitt

Portia

141

(4)

Mrs. Anna Jameson

[Jessica and Portia]

145

(7)

Heinrich Heine

The Theme of the Three Caskets

152

(9)

Sigmund Freud

[The Music of The Merchant of Venice]

161

(8)

G. Wilson Knight

Biblical Allusion and Allegory in The Merchant of Venice

169

(20)

Barbara K. Lewalski

[Platonic Doctrine and the Music of Act 5]

189

(4)

Lawrence Danson

Shylock and the Idea of the Jew

193

(13)

Derek Cohen

Wilhelm S and Shylock

206

(13)

Laurence Lerner

[Edmund Kean as Shylock]

219

(7)

Toby Lelyveld

[Circumcision and the ``Pound of Flesh'']

226

(13)

James Shapiro

[Shylocks in Shakespeare's England]

239

(4)

Stephen Orgel

[The Shakespeares as Money-lenders]

243

(2)

Charles Edelman

[The Merchant of Venice and Proto-capitalism]

245

(6)

Walter Cohen

Portia's Ring: Unruly Women and Structures of Exchange in The Merchant of Venice

251

(19)

Karen Newman

How to Read The Merchant of Venice without Being Heterosexist

270

(16)

Alan Sinfield

Racism and Homophobia in The Merchant of Venice

286

(2)

James O'Rourke

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Colonization and Miscegenation in The Merchant of Venice

288

(16)

Kim F. Hall

``Mislike Me Not for My Complexion'': Whose Mislike? Portia's? Shakespeare's Or That of His Age?

304

(17)

R. W. Desai

The Merchant of Venice in Israel

321

(14)

Avraham Oz

Rewritings and Appropriations

[Prologue for a Revival of The Merchant of Venice at the Time of the Parliamentary Bill for Naturalizing the Jews]